On this Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, I am always reminded of the extraordinary circumstances of my own birth and baptism on April 28, 1944.
I was delivered at home by my country midwife paternal grandmother "Lillie" as she was known. Both my mother and I almost died during the birthing process. My grandmother, with years of experience as a midwife, knew what to do. She baptized me right there is the bed in which I was born and had someone go get a doctor for my mother and me!
She lived across the road from us so I was close to her as a child and spent a lot of time with her. I helped her grind sausage, churn butter and work with her in her vegetable garden. I can't remember her talking a lot. She was like the servant in the Isaiah reading who was not big on “making her voice heard.” She just invited me to do new things and then showed me how to do them without a whole lot of talking. She always wore her hair pulled-back and rolled-up in a bun on the back of her head. To me, it was a living symbol of her wise, practical and hard-working nature.
I did not know that she had baptized me until I sent for a baptismal record before ordination. No one had bothered to tell me. She was able to attend my first Mass and follow me during my first year as a priest.
It was this grandmother who "birthed" me into this world and this grandmother who "birthed" me into the family of God! I still remember her every year on my birthday and every year on today's Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord.
Her birthday is tomorrow, January 12. She would have been 135 years old this year. I will remember her tomorrow as well. I hope all of you can spend a little time today reflecting on your own baptisms which is more important that our ordinations, our marriages or our religious professions. I remember our former Auxiliary Bishop, Charles Maloney, who Confirmed me in 1957. He always said that his Baptism was more important than his ordination as a priest or his consecration as a bishop!
Just a Jesus was baptized not for his own good, so have we! We are baptized for mission – for going out to take the good news to others! Even though each of us have a “vocation,” a “call,” the clarity of that call was not obvious to most of us right away. Some of us may have spent years “discerning” our call, with starts and stops, until it became clear enough to act– whether it was to marriage, the single life, religious profession or ordained ministry. Even though the lifestyle is very different among our various “vocations,” we are all called to “go out” and “take Christ’s message of unconditional love to the world” in some specific way! However, we don’t go out alone, we go out as a “tag team,” all doing something different, but all for the same purpose – to make Christ known and his lifestyle lived in some practical way!
It seems that I have been doing ministry in one way or another all my life. 82 years ago, this coming April 28, I was commissioned for lay ministry at my baptism by my paternal grandmother. 57 years ago, I was ordained to do the ministry of a Deacon by the Archbishop of Indianapolis. A year later, 56 years ago this coming May 16, I was ordained for the ministry of a priest. After my retirement, I have continued my ministry as a priest, helping out here and there in this diocese, but I have added foreign mission ministry to my list, first in the Caribbean missions and now in the African missions of Kenya and Tanzania. I hope to continue doing ministry till the end, not simply because I am a priest, but more so because I am first of all a baptized Christian, commissioned to be an ambassador for Christ!
Some of us may think that our particular “call” at baptism is not flashy, news-worthy or even obvious to others. Like the “chosen servant” mentioned in Isaiah today who went out “not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street” our “vocation” may be understated, low-keyed, muted and subdued, but effective none the less! Many people respond better and respond more enthusiastically to a quiet presence more than a loud in-your-faced presence. As St. Gregory Nazianzus once said about preaching, “One and the same exhortation does not fit all. According to the quality of the hearer ought the discourse of the teachers to be fashioned.” A simple quiet gesture of kindness can sometimes be more effective in leading people to Jesus than an eloquent homily! In a way, maybe my grandmother taught me more about the way of Jesus than all of the Bishop Sheen tapes I have listened to combined!
Here is a parting thought for you to consider! Find out
what day you were baptized! As Bishop Maloney reminded people, “It is more
important than your wedding anniversary or my ordination!” If you don’t know
when you were baptized, contact the parish where it took place and ask for a
copy of your Baptismal Record. Put that date on your calendar and find a way to
celebrate it every year. It, too, is one of your birthdays! It is not a day for
you to receive presents just because you were born, but a day to give service
because you have been baptized! It was the day you were commissioned for
ministry. Maybe you can celebrate your baptism every year by volunteering for
some kind of service – either in your community, in your family, in your
neighborhood or in your parish! Call your godparents if they are alive! Treat
them to lunch if possible! Pull out your baptism pictures if you have them! Do
something every year to help you remember that you have been commissioned for
ministry! In the words of our second reading, “You have been sent to do good
and heal those oppressed, for God is with you!”
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